Thread: Efficiency in Govt May Be an Oxymoron

http://www.ktsm.com/story_print.sstg?c=2228&type=news
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More Debate Over Immigration Reform
Senator John Cornyn calls for tougher language in the Senate's bill regarding the illegal hiring of immigrants.

Monday, June 19, 2006 — The debate heats up over whether or not the Senate bill is tough enough on illegal employment.

"It is my belief that we can't control illegal immigration unless we stop illegal employment," says U.S. Senator John Cornyn.

Cornyn, like many business leaders in the community, hopes for a more efficient system to help cut down on illegal practices, while at the same time making it easier to hire legal employees.

"The challenge is there's a backlog and it takes a while to get done. So the paperwork trail is the only way to check if they're legal or not. It's not fool proof by any means," says Cindy Ramos-Davidson, El Paso Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

Senator Cornyn is also worried that not enough is done to deter from illegally hiring.

"A perfect verification system accomplishes nothing if we're not committed to enforcing the law against those who do not comply," says Cornyn.

The Government Accountability Office has released some figures that may help Cornyn's argument. In recent years, there haven't been as many officials who's job it is to check and see that employers are complying. Those number are down by 150 employees.

In that same time period, the number of unauthorized workers arrested has dramatically fallen from just over 2800 in 1999, to 445 in 2003.

Both the House and the Senate have already passed their versions of immigration reform bills. Each of those bills calls for U.S. employers to check the legal status of workers through an electronic program. But it will likely be a while until any of this debate becomes a reality because both sides still have to hammer out their many differences.
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Unfortunately there are many oxymorons in government:

Honest Government
Common sense Government
Intelligent Government
Simple Government
Representative of citizens Government